1983 "Strike Hard" Anti-crime Campaign

After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and the launch of Reform and Opening-up in 1978, crime rates in China—including property crimes—were surging according to Chinese government, and as response the "Strike Hard" campaign was launched to counter such surge in criminal offenses.[1][7][8] According to the Ministry of Public Security of China, in 1980 there were over 750,000 criminal cases nationwide and 50,000 were "serious cases", in 1981 the numbers were 890,000 and 67,000, and in 1982 the numbers were 740,000 and 64,000.[7][10]

The "Strike Hard" campaign was launched during the early stage of legal re-construction in China when the legal system was almost destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.[6][11][12] The criminal law of China came into effect in 1980 and the new Constitution of China was passed in 1982;[13] subsequently, the campaign was formally launched in September 1983 and lasted until January 1985, receiving support from Deng Xiaoping.[8][9]

There were three main battles of the "Strike Hard" campaign.[7][8][9] In total, some 197,000 criminal groups were cracked down, 1.772 million people were arrested, 321,000 were re-educated through labor and 1.747 million people received legal punishment, with 24,000 sentenced to death (mainly in the first battle), which had an immediate positive effect on public safety.[1][7][8][9] A number of people arrested (some even received death penalty) were children or relatives of government officials at various levels, including the grandson of Zhu De, demonstrating the principle of "all are equal before the law".[6][7][8]

However, some of the cases in the campaign were actually "unjust, false, wrongful cases" and some people received overly harsh punishments, resulting in legal controversies, in addition to the fact that the long-term effect of "Strike Hard" campaign on improving public safety has been widely disputed.[2][3][7][8][9]